Steve Moffic

“No personal confession or revelation impends here, but these feelings in old folks are widely treated like a raunchy secret.” (From Roger Angell’s “This Old Man: Life in the Nineties.”) In contrast to my usual posts on this site, there will be no personal revelations by me here either, other than to say that sex […]

Near the end of my clinical career as a psychiatrist, I, like so many other psychiatrists, was required to do more in less time. In order to use that precious time as best as possible, I wondered if there was anything else I could do to offset that limitation. Soon, I recalled the landmark book […]

Disclaimer: This blog is not an endorsement for Hillary Clinton. Far from it. We don’t even know if she is running for President yet. But we do know that she is projected to be a grandmother. Who knows? Even if she does run, she may run against someone who is also a grandmother or grandfather. […]

Although I was very grateful that Medicare was available when I retired two years ago, I’ve also been surprised and concerned about some of what it doesn’t cover. These concerns are especially in the areas of our eyes, ears, and mouth. For my mouth, the timing could not have been worse. I had excellent dental […]

“Begin with the end in mind.” (From Stephen R. Covey: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic.) Did you ever wonder about the veracity of the eulogies given at funerals? Was this really the same person you thought you once knew? I know, I know. Eulogies are meant to convey the […]

As the New Year arrived, many people made New Year’s resolutions. Some, I’m sure, resolved not to age, or at least to age as slowly and healthily as possible. I wondered if I should make such a resolution. That particular question just came up as I communicated with an old high school classmate for the […]

On the morning of Wednesday, November 20th, 2013, I was beginning to peruse the article by Dan Gorenstein in the New York Times, “How Doctors Die: In Coming to Grips With Their Own Mortality, They Are Showing the Way for Others”. CNN was on the TV in the background. On came the presentation of the […]

In terms of cost savings, suicide among the elderly would be quite effective. Perhaps “suicide panels” would be as successful as the imaginary ”death panels” that caused so much consternation as healthcare reform was being processed. A ready-made theme song for “suicide panels” could be “Suicide is Painless“, the theme song from the hit TV […]

“You see me here, you gods, a poor old man, As full of grief as age; wretched in both.” -King Lear, 3.2 The story is one for the ages. Our ages. Shakespeare’s tragedy, King Lear. But it is a story that my wife and I can no longer easily watch or read, for it is […]